Dear ProCon.org readers, we need your help. The average cost for ProCon.org to educate 26 people with nonpartisan research on important issues is $1. The average taxi fare in America is about $10. We are asking everyone who visits ProCon.org to donate the cost of one taxi ride – at least $10 – to this important charity. Without your support, the programs at ProCon.org that serve millions of students, teachers, and others cannot exist. Our charitable work is funded entirely by your donations. Thank you and happy holidays!

Dear ProCon.org readers, we need your help. The average cost for ProCon.org to educate 26 people with nonpartisan research on important issues is $1. The average taxi fare in America is about $10. We are asking everyone who visits ProCon.org to donate the cost of one taxi ride – at least $10 – to this important charity. Without your support, the programs at ProCon.org that serve millions of students, teachers, and others cannot exist. Our charitable work is funded entirely by your donations.

This website exists to give people a real understanding of issues from both sides – not a biased echo chamber version of understanding issues. ProCon.org, a nonprofit public charity, provides – for free and without ads – nonpartisan facts, well researched pros and cons, and a platform for critical thinking on today’s most important issues. Please support this work with your tax-deductible donation in 2016. Time is running out, and the country needs ProCon.org more than ever. Thank you and happy holidays!

What Was the Outcome of the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan?

The United Nations (UN) 1990 document titled "The Origins and Evolution of the Palestine Problem: 1917-1988, Part II 1947-1977," contained the following description of the UN Partition Plan's outcome:

"The United Nations partition resolution did not provide a solution to the Palestine problem, and violence increased. In protest against the partition of their country, the Palestinian Arab Higher Committee called for a general strike. Palestinian-Jewish clashes proliferated with Jewish paramilitary forces operating more freely as British forces started their withdrawal. Sabotage, attacks on military installations and the capture of British arms by these groups became a major feature of the Palestinian scene, along with a proliferation of Jewish-Arab clashes. With events moving towards a major armed confrontation, Great Britain announced that it would terminate the Mandate on 15 May 1948, several months before the time envisaged in the United Nations plan.

The Security Council could not take any effective decision after discussing General Assembly resolution 181 (II) (the partition resolution) in December 1947. In March 1948 the United States draft proposal to enable the Council to act on the partition resolution failed, and the Council only called for an end to the violence in Palestine. Under the pressure of rapidly moving developments, the partition resolution did not even reach the stage of routine reference to the Sixth Committee for an examination of its legal effects and implications. The United Nations Commission on Palestine, established by resolution 181 (II), could not move to Jerusalem, and only could hold consultations in New York. The formation of the armed militia, intended to assist the Commission in its functions in Palestine, became impracticable in the face of the accelerated British withdrawal in a deteriorating situation where the casualty toll in the first three months after the approval of the partition resolution was 869 dead and 1,909 injured."

Country Studies, a Federal Research Division of the U.S. Library of Congress, in a section titled "A Country Study: Israel, Prelude to Statehood" on its website (accessed Aug. 11, 2006), offered the following:

"Despite the passage of the UN
partition plan, the situation in Palestine in early 1948 did not look
auspicious for the Yishuv. When the AHC [Arab Higher Committe] rejected
the plan immediately after its passage and called for a general strike,
violence between Arabs and Jews mounted. Many Jewish centers, including
Jerusalem, were besieged by the Arabs. In January 1948, President
Truman, warned by the United States Department of State that a Jewish
state was not viable, reversed himself on the issue of Palestine,
agreeing to postpone partition and to transfer the Mandate to a
trusteeship council. Moreover, the British forces in Palestine sided
with the Arabs and attempted to thwart the Yishuv's attempts to arm
itself...

The Haganah went on the offensive and... successfully
consolidated and created communications links with those Jewish
settlements designated by the UN to become the Jewish state. In the
meantime, Weizmann convinced Truman to reverse himself and pledge his
support for the proposed Jewish state.

In April 1948, the
Palestinian Arab community panicked after Begin's Irgun killed 250 Arab
civilians at the village of Dayr Yasin near Jerusalem. The news of Dayr
Yasin [sic] precipitated a flight of the Arab population from areas with large
Jewish populations. On May 14, 1948, Ben-Gurion and his associates
proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel. On the following
day Britain relinquished the Mandate at 6:00 P.M. and the United States
announced de facto recognition of Israel. Soviet recognition was
accorded on May 18; by April 1949, fifty-three nations, including
Britain, had extended recognition. In May 1949, the UN General Assembly,
on recommendation of the Security Council, admitted Israel to the UN.

Meanwhile, Arab military forces began their invasion of Israel
on May 15... By January 1949, Jewish forces held the area that was to
define Israel's territory until June 1967, an area that was
significantly larger than the area designated by the UN partition plan.

The part of Palestine remaining in Arab hands was limited to
that held by the Arab Legion of Transjordan and the Gaza area held by
Egypt at the cessation of hostilities. The area held by the Arab Legion
was subsequently annexed by Jordan and is commonly referred to as the
West Bank (see Glossary).

Jerusalem was divided. The Old City, the Western Wall and the site of
Solomon's Temple, upon which stands the Muslim mosque called the Dome
of the Rock, remained in Jordanian hands; the New City lay on the
Israeli side of the line. Although the West Bank remained under
Jordanian suzerainty until 1967, only two countries--Britain and
Pakistan--granted de jure recognition of the annexation."

The Jewish Virtual Library, an online encyclopedia, in a section titled "Myths and Facts" (accessed Aug. 10, 2006), offered the following explanation of the geographical outcome of the proposed plan:

"The partition plan took
on a checkerboard appearance largely because Jewish towns and villages
were spread throughout Palestine. This did not complicate the plan as
much as the fact that the high living standards in Jewish cities and
towns had attracted large Arab populations, which insured that any
partition would result in a Jewish state that included a substantial
Arab population. Recognizing the need to allow for additional Jewish
settlement, the majority proposal allotted the Jews land in the
northern part of the country, Galilee, and the large, arid Negev
desert in the south. The remainder was to form the Arab state.These
boundaries were based solely on demographics.

The borders of
the Jewish State were arranged with no consideration of security;
hence, the new state's frontiers were virtually indefensible. Overall,
the Jewish State was to be comprised of roughly 5,500 square miles and
the population was to be 538,000 Jews and 397,000 Arabs. The Arab
State was to be 4,500 square miles with a population of 804,000 Arabs
and 10,000 Jews. Though the Jews were allotted more total land, the
majority of that land was in the desert.

Further complicating the situation was the UN majority's
insistence that Jerusalem remain apart from both states and be administered as an
international zone. This arrangement left more than 100,000 Jews in Jerusalem
isolated from their country and circumscribed by the Arab state."